Ronnine Bartley dated her now-husband Lawrence when they were in middle school. “Even when we were like together at 13 and 14 years old when we had no business being together, we always talked about being married,” Ronnine told me. But when Lawrence was 17, he was arrested and convicted of murder. They weren’t dating at the time, but they stayed in touch and eventually got back together while he was in prison. And in 2006, they got married. 

But married life hasn’t exactly been how Ronnine once imagined it would be. She and Lawrence have never spent more than 72 hours together as a couple. Their two boys were conceived during conjugal visits inside prison walls. And she’s had to be the breadwinner and the decision-maker in their family. “Do I consult with [Lawrence]? Absolutely,” she told me. “You know, that makes the relationship work. That makes him feel involved, but I’m the boss. Like in my head, I’m the boss!” 

Life for their family will look very different if Lawrence gets paroled. After 27 years in prison, he’s going before the parole board for the first time next month. “I try not to talk about it too much,” Ronnine says. “I’m not really prepared for if he doesn’t get released.” But, Ronnine says, even if Lawrence gets out, there are still plenty of challenges that they’ll face as Lawrence adjusts to life on the outside and they adjust to life together as a couple. “I guess we’re gonna have to go to counseling,” she told me. “You know, that’s a lot. It’s deep.”